Tag Archives: satellite

How might we know you: My partner Ami Sadeh and I helped create the BearDance events.

Type of car: Blue 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe.

Best car memory? Driving my Nissan 350Z the first time with my partner around town with the top down!

Funniest road trip story: I don’t know if it’s funny or sad, but I had an audition in Tennessee and a drunk driver sliced off a big chunk of metal off the side of the trunk. It was my dad’s Oldsmobile Delta 88. I had to tie that chunk of metal back on the car as it flapped all the way back to Cincinnati where I lived.

Hmmm… we vote sad. OK, buy or lease? Lately I prefer leasing. I get the itch for something new or different about every three to four years. It doesn’t hurt that you can get a bit more car for less money per month!

You play the flute, but ever in the car? I think I’ve played it in my partner’s car while he’s been driving. It’s not at all practical for the driver and it doesn’t work well in the passenger seat either. There are better places to practice. Now I will practice finger patterns for music on the steering wheel from time to time though, and that’s a great way to practice without the instrument.

What do you jam out to? NPR or BPM on satellite radio. Sometimes it’s Beethoven or Lady Gaga.

Don’t you musclebear types drive Jeeps or big trucks usually? Am I really that now? Ha! Maybe I do need to get the requisite truck! I’m not about all my image with my car, it’s more about the driving experience for me, and I like fun-to-drive cars usually as long as they are roomy enough for me.

Since it’s hot as hell out, how’s your A/C? It is fantastic! I’m lucky to have a garage to park in at home so that it’s not all heated up when I leave the house in the summer, but even when it’s been out in the sun, it cools down very quickly.

Sounds great. So, one last thing: flootist or flautist? Well, it can be both actually.

— Rich Lopez

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 26, 2011.

"Schlessinger will begin on Sirius XM on January 3, just three days after signing off from terrestrial radio."

Said Schlessinger in August: "Well, I'm here to say that my contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I have made the decision not to do radio anymore. The reason is: I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind, and in my heart, what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent, and attack affiliates and attack sponsors…I'm sort of done with that. I'm not retiring. I'm not quitting. I feel energized actually, stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country…I write books. I have blogs. I have my Web site…This is the area — this is the era of the Internet."

According to the report, Schlessinger's new show will be three hours long, broadcast daily.

This story is so bizarre. I can’t be sure what was running through Rick Sanchez’s mind, but somehow the intimacy of doing a radio program must have lulled him into a state of mind that allowed that little sensor in your head that stops you from saying something supremely stupid/racist/insane to malfunction. (The Box):

CNN has fired anchor Rick Sanchez, following a radio rant Thursday night where he called Jon Stewart a “bigot,” blamed CNN brass for discrimination against him and insinuated that the media industry is controlled by Jews.

Sanchez had gone on Pete Dominick’s Sirius XM show to promote his new book, “Conventional Idiocy.” While on air, he called Stewart a “bigot,” implied that CNN is controlled by Jews and that the network passed him over for promotion because he’s Latino.

The full transcript is here . It’s worth reading because no paraphrasing can capture the meltdown. I’m not particularly interested in his attacks on Jon Stewart; Sanchez has been the butt of his jokes, and Sanchez sees that as racist. All Rick’s done is give Stewart more to poke fun at.

Where Sanchez goes off the rails starts with his reference to “elite Northeast establishment liberals” that devolves into denying that Jews are an oppressed minority and are holding minorities back, by extension, on CNN.

There are a couple of things that most of the Sanchez-bashers are ignoring because of Rick’s anti-Semitism: 1) the reality of being a minority anchor on that network, and 2) CNN’s history of keeping bigot Lou Dobbs on the air, never reprimanding him for the numerous ON-AIR lies and inflammatory comments about Latinos and other minorities (remember Lou and Obama Waffles?).

Case in point:

RS- I had a guy who works here at CNN who’s a top brass come to me and

say, ‘You know what, I don’t want you to –

PD- ‘Will you wash this dish for me, Sanchez?’

RS- No no, see that’s the thing; it’s more subtle. White folks usually don’t see it. But we do – those of us who are minorities and women see it sometimes too from men in authority. Here, I’ll give you my example its this ‘You know what, I don’t want you anchoring anymore, I really don’t see you as an anchor, I see you more as a reporter, I see you more as a John Quinones – you know the guy on ABC. That’s what he told me. He told me he saw me as John Quinones. Now, did he not realize that he was telling me, ‘When I see you I think of Hispanic reporters’? Cause in his mind I can’t be an anchor. An anchor is what you give the high-profile white guys, you know.

Rick’s not pulling that out of his ass. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Jenkins, the former president of the Women’s Media Center, who had a storied 23-year career as a news anchor at New York’s local WNBC-TV. She anchored the 6PM newscast (and won an Emmy). She has said much the same thing (sans Sanchez’s slur, of course) about how female anchors are similarly siloed. One news director told her flat-out that viewers “want to see a man in prime time.” She asked what studies or polls he was basing his view on. He had none to cite. Yes, that’s right. Just a “gut feeling” about what people want to see.

The bottom line is that it’s hard to break that glass ceiling, a point Rick Sanchez could have made without resorting to his Jewish conspiracy theory.

Anyway, I suppose that Rick can continue his book tour and think about his next options…and about that broken sensor.

And about Lou “The Brown Menace Is Upon Us” Dobbs? Why the flip didn’t CNN have the hair-trigger trap door for him? The YouTubes of him going off on-air, on the network are numerous. And the Obama Waffles incident at the Values Voter Summit in 1998, Lou stopped by the vendor table to give a slamming endorsement of the product (“My wife will love this!”)? That didn’t cost Lou his job.

It doesn’t excuse Sanchez’s remarks, but it does call into question the objectivity of using bigotry as a principal reason for dismissal at CNN.